The Waking Vale
by gallantCalamity
Summary: In which Cecil is a mental patient, and Carlos and Dana try to help him regain his sanity. AKA, my first published fanfiction.
1. Prologue

_"A small desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead as we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale."_

"Dana, is he still going at it?" The woman jumped in surprise before she recognized Nurse Tanner, carrying his customary leather briefcase.

"You mean the recordings? Yes, he's still making them." She informed him, smiling fondly. Tanner merely frowned.

"I don't know why you let him carry on these delusions. We are attempting to help these people, not encourage them." Dana huffed, rolling her eyes and waving him off.

"There's no harm in it. Besides, it makes him happy." She glanced through the small window on the steel door to see the man the two nurses had been talking about. Cecil Palmer was seated at his desk, speaking into a microphone he had received perhaps a month before. As he addressed his 'listeners', Tanner sighed.

"Happy or not, these radio-show delusions have to stop. He's gotten worse since you gave him that microphone, Dana, he really has."

"Oh, please. You're just upset because he's never mentioned you on his 'show'. Besides, the Doc agrees that studying those recordings may help us learn more about Palmer's condition. Now, don't you have to get Pamela that medication?" Tanner opened his mouth to argue some more, but patients came first, so he just harrumphed and left. Dana bit back a giggle, then glanced through the glass again. Cecil was still 'reporting' of traffic in the Night Vale city, blissfully unaware that it did not exist, and that to the Doctors at Night Vale Mental hospital, he was known as patient 204.


	2. Chapter 1

The next afternoon, Tanner approached Dana with a stranger in tow. Said stranger was tall, wore a long, white lab coat that matched his long, dark hair, and immediately set off Dana's self-proclaimed 'hottie alarm'.

"Dana, this is Carlos, the new doctor I was telling you about. Carlos, this is Dana," Tanner introduced. The two shook hands.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Carlos greeted politely. Dana returned the sentiment, knowing instantly that the two would become close friends.

"It's good to see a new face around here. If you haven't already, I can take you on a tour of the place," Dana offered. Carlos glanced over to Tanner, confirming that it was all right before agreeing.

"That would be nice. Perhaps you could give me a brief synopsis of the patients as well, if it isn't too much trouble."

"Sure! Just follow me- We'll start with the left wing."

The tour went fairly well, Carlos thought. Dana was good at explaining things, and he doubted he could ever get lost in the building. It was interesting to hear about the patients- Josie, who saw 'angels', Pamela, whose wild fantasies changed every day, Brad, who believed with all his might that he was a fish, etc. Carlos had only ever practiced general medicine before this, and the entire asylum intrigued him. However, no patient was quite as interesting as Cecil Gershwin Palmer, as Carlos soon found out.

"Is he... recording something?" Dana glanced over and smiled upon catching sight of the patient through the small window on his door.

"Yep. That's Cecil Palmer, he's sort of infamous around here. See, he thinks that he's a radio show host in a town called Night Vale- which I think is a play off of this hospital's name. I bought him the recording equipment so we could listen to the 'show', and maybe learn more about his condition."

"But isn't that just catering to his fantasies?" Carlos asked, frowning. Dana shrugged.

"Tanner thinks so, but he's actually gotten a bit better, I think. He remembers our names and faces, responds when people talk to him, and I've noticed parallels between the real world and his show, so... Really, there's no harm in the equipment that I can see," she explained. Carlos nodded, humming in thought.

"Do you think he would recognize me? Because I'm new around here, I may not register, right?"

"Huh... Well, I don't see any harm in talking to him! You'll have to wait until the show is over, though. That shouldn't take too long; it looks like he's playing the weather now." Sure enough, Cecil was dancing around the room to a song from a Satellite High CD.

"He plays music for the weather?" Carlos asked, raising an eyebrow. This Palmer fellow was quite the character. Carlos was looking forward to the chance to talk to him.


End file.
